BRIDGEPORT, CT (CelebrityAccess) – Composer Gerald Fried, who won an Emmy for the landmark miniseries Roots died of pneumonia Friday at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport, Ct. He was 95.
His wide-ranging career included scoring five early Stanley Kubrick films, including Paths of Glory and The Killing; receiving the only Oscar nomination ever given for a documentary score, 1975’s Birds Do It, Bees Do It; and earning five other Emmy nominations for music in specials, TV movies, and miniseries.
Fried scored approximately 40 films, some three dozen TV movies and miniseries, and episodes of another 40 TV shows during a career that spanned more than six decades.
Fried scored episodes of many classic TV series including Ben Casey, Mission: Impossible, Lost in Space, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Mannix, Police Woman, and Dynasty.
In November 1976, “Roots” producers David L. Wolper and Stan Margulies turned to Fried, who had scored their TV movie I Will Fight No More Forever. Fried was quietly hired, and while Quincy Jones’ music was used during the first two hours, set in Africa, the remaining 10 hours of the miniseries – TV’s first serious look at the horrors of slavery in America – were scored by Fried. Emmys were later presented to both composers.
Fried was introduced to movies by his childhood friend Stanley Kubrick; Fried scored the budding director’s first short, the 1951 Day of the Fight, and went on to score Kubrick’s first four features: Fear and Desire, Killer’s Kiss, and The Killing, ending with the antiwar classic Paths of Glory in 1957.
Fried was born in the Bronx, on February 13, 1928, and attended New York’s High School of Music and Art. He studied oboe at the Juilliard School of Music and, from 1948 to 1956, was the first oboist with the Dallas Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and New York’s Little Orchestra. He moved to Los Angeles in 1957 and played for one season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
He moved with his family to Connecticut six years ago. Fried was a strong supporter of the fight against AIDS. His 5-year-old son Zack died of AIDS in 1987; born prematurely with severe medical issues, he was given 27 blood transfusions, one or more of which turned out to be tainted with HIV. The Fried family produced a line of T-shirts adorned with Zack’s drawings, the proceeds of which were donated to AIDS fundraisers.
Survivors include his wife, Anita; four children, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
